When Things Go Wrong In The Emergency Room

I'm done with taking my daughter to the Hospital Emergency Room.

My first bad experience was when she was having severe abdominal pain. My daughter's mum rushed her there and the Hospital ran every test they could and came up with a blank and no explanation. The wrote it off as possible "gas" or "growing pains". The final bill for no remedy was $7,500. By the time I arrived she was being discharged. When her mum told me the symptoms my daughter was having, I diagnosed the problem, without any kind of medical background in 30 seconds by poking my daughter in her side with my finger. It was a Kidney Infection. Lots of Cranberry Juice and two days rest and my daughter was fine. Being stuck with a $7,500 bill from the Hospital, however, my daughter's mum and I were not fine.

My next bad experience was when my daughter suffered an accident on the Jungle Gym at the Playground and split her forehead, nose, and cheek open. I was going to use the Super-Glue trick, but realized this was my precious daughter, and it was on her face. I didn't want her to have to live with a large visible scar on her face for the rest of her life. So, we rushed her to the Hospital Emergency Room to get 14 stitches in her face. My daughter kept panicking when the needle came for her, so the doctor tried a Topical Anesthetic. Since my daughter is red-headed, it did no good (red-heads need 20% higher of a dosage for anesthetics to be effective). So, the doctor gave her a non-opiate oral anesthetic (Propofol). It made her hallucinate hard, but it didn't sedate her. Finally, they administered an inhaled anesthetic (Sevoflurane) and she was out cold, and the doctor was able to give my daughter the 14 stitches she needed. Everything seemed worthwhile until it was time to bring my daughter out of sedation. The doctor called in a Crash-Cart team and a dozen nurses came running in, one of them shuffling me out of the room and another handing me a stack of 550 pages to read and sign (I kid you not! 550!), basically claiming the Hospital to not be negligent of any wrong-doing. Until I signed all of those papers not a single person at the Hospital would explain to me what was going on. Turns out the minimum Child Dosage of Sevoflurane that was given to my daughter caused an Overdose and my daughter went into a Coma. Thankfully, my daughter came out of the Coma 8 hours later and recalled everything that was going on around her the entire time. The final bill for the Hospital giving my daughter an Overdose and putting her in a Coma? $15,000!

So, yesterday my daughter sliced her foot open. Her mum insisted on taking her to the Hospital Emergency Room despite my reassurances that she didn't need that kind of medical mistreatment, and that as bleeding had already stopped there was nothing more that the Emergency Room could do for her. Boy was I wrong! She took her anyway and rather than type it all over again, they went through the same routine of Topical Anesthetic, Oral Non-Opiate Anesthetic (Propofol), and Inhaled Anesthetic (Sevoflurane) resulting in an Overdose and my daughter going into a Coma again! Now, my daughter's mum had an excuse as she was not at the Hospital the first time my daughter went into a Anesthetic-induced Coma. However, this was the EXACT same Hospital, *AND* it was on my daughter's Medical Chart! Thankfully, yet again, my daughter came out of the Coma 8 hours later, recalling everything just as before. The final bill for this Emergency Room Induced Coma? Only $5,000 this time for their negligence!

I could sue. Yes, I signed all that paperwork, and I'm sure they made my daughter's mum sign all the same paperwork as well. However, signing a legal document under duress, especially when the welfare of your child is at stake and the Hospital refuses to disclose information about their condition until you sign, couldn't possibly be upheld in a Court of Law! Now, if the Hospital were to say "We messed up, yet again...tell you what, no charge...it's on the house...please don't sue us" I would be fine with that, although I wouldn't ever allow them to work on my daughter ever again, but I would walk away and not sue. However, messing up and sticking you with an insane bill to cover the cost of additional treatment that was required because of their mess up is inexcusable. I would be foolish not to sue them.

Considering these huge Health Care Bills that I can't afford (we don't have Health Insurance because my Employer doesn't offer it, and my Gross Income is too high to qualify for State Health Care, but after $750/month in Child Support for the daughter I have most of the time, my Net Income is well below the Poverty Level so I can't afford Private Health Insurance). I am all for Government Health Insurance Reform if everyday people like me can qualify for Insurance. However, the thing that makes me hesitant about it is these above situations? Will I lose the right to sue the Hospitals when they mess up? Will government sovereignty, which indemnifies them from Civil Suits, extend to Health Care Providers? If so, I'm not sure that's a good idea.

Maybe we are better off with Witch-Doctors anyway. A little Chicken's Blood and Chanting never caused anyone to go into a Coma!

[edit on 21-8-2009 by fraterormus]

The best advice I can give is.........stay away from hospitals, my family

has had many bad experiences!! Your lucky if you get out ALIVE!!

Im a nurse and this is my opinion......I won't even work in a hospital
I do private care.

S&F

Originally posted by truth/seeker
The best advice I can give is.........stay away from hospitals, my family

has had many bad experiences!! Your lucky if you get out ALIVE!!

Im a nurse and this is my opinion......I won't even work in a hospital
I do private care.

S&F

My two best-friends were head nurses at an Emergency Room in Los Angeles for 15 years. They keep reminding me that I shouldn't go to an Emergency Room ever, and if I do anyway to ask to see a RN-on-Duty and not a Doctor.

They now both work running two different (and competing) Medical Clinics, one as a CEO and the other on the Board of Directors, however they run an underground Medical Clinic out of their home. The doctors aren't aware of it, but nursing staff at both Clinics refer patients who can't afford their Co-Pay, or who don't have Insurance, to them after-hours. They provide their services for free because they feel it is their duty and obligation to ensure that everyone who needs Medical Care gets Medical Care, especially the ones that can't afford it.

Still, every time something goes wrong with my daughter I always forget about them! My first parental instinct when there is an Emergency is "must rush to the Emergency Room". Talk about conditioning! It must be subliminal thought control played through the speakers in the Hospital Waiting Room where you have to sit for 4-5 hours before someone sees you.

Just the fact that lawyers tend to be the politicians, I can almost guarantee you that medical lawsuits will always be an option. No matter what government decides, you can bet an ambulance chasing lawyer will have job security in the times ahead.

Your case? Yup... Very much a case I would support. Most cases? I wouldn't.

I'm all for the "free" health care idea a la Canada. It comes out of taxes and taxation is proportional. If that's possible, I'm all for it. However, private health care must remain an option for those that rather pay a premium to skip a line up.

I agree that you needn't go into an emergency room unless it is by ambulance. They are careless, and the diagnosis are almost always wrong, I too have friends who are in the field of nursing, and they say you must diagnose yourself, or your children, before arriving at the doctor, the doctor is basically only there to administer your prescriptions and any procedure that cannot be performed outside his office.

My doctore literally sits there with computer in lap, entering each symptom as I give it, and letting a software program do the diagnosing for him, luckily it almost always matches exactly what I have already found out myself on the internet.

BTW, I am a bit confused, you keep saying your daughter, then saying her mum took her too, by mum do you mean nanny???

Originally posted by space cadet
the doctor is basically only there to administer your prescriptions and any procedure that cannot be performed outside his office.

BTW, I am a bit confused, you keep saying your daughter, then saying her mum took her too, by mum do you mean nanny???

Doctors are indeed too busy playing golf, or planning their next round of golf, to actually practice medicine. Generally, especially true in Hospitals, it is their Nursing Staff that handles the majority of Health Care. Doctors are just there to be on call when something is beyond what the Nursing Staff can do, and to be the signature-signer. Not a bad gig if you can make it through your Residency.

As far as "mum" that is British for "mother", so my daughter's mother. I figure it is a nicer way of saying "blood-sucking witch" or "gold-digging ex".

[edit on 21-8-2009 by fraterormus]

eh I don't have much to complain about my country's health care (and im young to understand). All I complain about is the way people treat you at the hospital.
The day I broke my nose the nurse at school saw me bleeding for more than 30 minutes with my septum deviated and yet she said I was fine ( I had to cry and tell her to call my parent). When I went to the hospital the lady that checked all the papers kept asking if i was really hurt! How couldn't she see? I had my septum deviated for god sake!
Once a friend of mine broke her arm and the same lady (from school) said the kid was fine and to go back to class ( damn her arm was broken! how can you tell someone she's fine when the arm is all messed up!). Well I guess I shouldn't call the lady nurse because all she has is a first aid course now how can a school have someone to treat medical problems that doesn't really have any knowledge about medicine?